Connor Galyen Discussion Questions

1. During my week, what evidence of total depravity have I experienced and what evidence of the doctrine of man being created in God's image have I experienced?
First, if I look back on my week, I see a couple examples of total depravity. I think the main ones for me are temptations. Whispers from the Enemy to rebel against God and fulfill desires of my flesh or to write my own rules. This is an example of total depravity because it reminds me of life without Christ's freedom in my life. Like Paul states in Romans, if I rebel against God and replace the truth with a lie, then He will hand me over to the lusts of the mind and the body. This makes me think of non-Christians. What reason do they have to follow God's rules? What is stopping them from being self-consumed and a slave to their own pleasures and desires, chasing happiness through every decision with money, sex, etc? I think back to my life before Christ where my desires seemed to be the opposite of what God intended for me. It wasn't until Jesus crashed into my life did I realize how much better His ways are then mine. To me, total depravity just makes sense.
In the same way, the doctrine of being made in God's image makes sense but for different reasons. I believe at the core of all humanity, there is a desire to believe in something greater than one's self. Everyone is chasing a happiness or an overall goal in life that will "fulfill them". In my week, I've seen how God created me in His image just as easily as I feel temptations to rebel against Him. The response to the whispers of the Enemy are the reminders from the Spirit that God's way is greater. Like the Word says, "the work of the law is written on their (man's) hearts while their conscious bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them" (Romans 2:15). There are examples of man being created in God's image that is real in everyday life: striving to live morally, to aid and assist others or the Earth, to grow, and to seek something greater than one's self. We are lucky to have a God who came for us, who gave us His pardon and Spirit that we might be like Him in thought, word, and deed, and that we might have the greatest thing to believe in: Christ Jesus.

2. "How does a Christian view of the image of God impact our understanding of human rights"
A.W. Tozier once said that "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us". The Christian view of the image of God will impact how we see our rights as well as the human rights of others. First, we need a clear understanding of what God intended for us when He created us in the Garden. If the worldview of a person is the Christian understanding that God created man in His own image, then we need to believe that we are created divinely and in a special way. Man is God's manifesto of creation, the peak of God's vision for creation. He looked upon man and emphatically declared man to be good. This is how we were created and this was God's intention for us. Therefore, we should look at humanity as a entity that was declared as "good" from our creator. He desires to love us, desires to be with us in relationship, and very much desires that we live out this "goodness" that we were created to have. It is because of sin that we have fallen so low. Therefore when it comes to human rights, we should come against anything that goes against the "goodness" that God intended us to have. We should be against injustice and the dehumanization of people, our hearts should break for racism, sexism, and the perversion of diversity. We should be against those who do evil to others, fight for the poor and less fortunate, be advocates for peace, and strive for understanding in division. We should have a deep desire to be with God and live the way He intended, we should weep for the lost and those who are trapped in darkness, and we should want better for this world and man.